Writing and the Perception of Time

My perception of time has always been a little weird. I mean, if you think about time for a while, it’s kind of weird. Time is the now that comes after now. I mean, living now, and considering that the only time that matters right now is now. But you can think about the now that will come later, and you can prepare for it. Preparing for the now that hasn’t come yet can help the later-now go more smoothly.

One of the weird things here, now, is relating your now to the now of other people. People move at different speeds. They experience now at different times and in different ways. They see now differently, and they perceive the now that will come later differently. (This doesn’t even touch on the now that’s happened before, and it’s really, really hard to get people to agree on what that was like.)

So now, I can write about 1,000 words in something like 12-15 minutes, but it depends on how focused I am, and how quickly I’m thinking. Usually, my typing speed factors in at some point, but I don’t really concern myself with that so much, since it seems that I type faster the more focused I am. Now, when there are people around me, time moves at a different speed (from my perception of it).

It feels kind of like my mind is moving faster than the speed of people around me (which technically, it probably is) and it creates a weird feeling of dissonance. I feel like I’m both here and there at the same time. It feels like my feet are on the ground, but my head is in the clouds. At the same time. I feel kind of stretched, mentally, I suppose, though it’s less of a stretched feeling and more of a disconnected feeling. Connected and disconnected.